Bethesda tells Fallout 4 and Skyrim players to save mod load orders

Bethesda Game Studios has warned Fallout 4 and Skyrim players to secure their mod setups before a pair of incoming updates, the first of which arrives on August 18.

The studio published the advisory on social media on the evening of August 14, according to Rock Paper Shotgun. "As a precaution, prior to these updates we encourage players to log into your game save if you haven't done so in a while or manually save your load order," Bethesda wrote. "Once your load order is saved, you'll be able to re-download your entire Creations list at once when the update is live."

Fallout 4 is first in line. Polygon reports that its patch lands on Tuesday, August 18 and is aimed at general improvements to Creations, Bethesda's in-game mod platform. The Skyrim update has no date attached yet; Rock Paper Shotgun notes that Bethesda has promised more information once the details are settled.

Why the warning matters

For most games a stability patch would pass without comment. For two Bethesda RPGs that are played almost exclusively with third-party mods, Polygon writes, an update is the point at which load orders break. Mod authors cannot begin fixing anything until the patch is live, and mods whose creators have moved on may never be updated at all.

PC Gamer points to the recent history behind that caution. Bethesda's 2024 "next gen" update for Fallout 4 broke a great deal without improving much, and the practical remedy that emerged was a community Downgrader Tool that rolled the whole thing back. A further update a year later, smaller in scope, produced its own round of problems and then another patch to address them.

Both games remain heavily played more than a decade after release. Polygon counted more than 34,000 concurrent Skyrim players on Steam on a Monday afternoon, and says Skyrim players have recently been adopting a mod that improves the game's visuals without demanding more processing power.

The reaction to Bethesda's post, PC Gamer reports, has mixed gratitude that an 11-year-old game is still supported with concern about the damage that support can cause, alongside the recurring complaint that the studio is patching Fallout 4 rather than shipping The Elder Scrolls 6.

Players who want to keep their current setups intact have one instruction to follow before Tuesday: load a save, or save the load order by hand, so the Creations list can be restored in one pass once the update is out.